I think what would make this competition more interesting Mich ,is to not play it!!

Something that would be interesting to experiment with, and since the EFL doesn't take this competition seriously to begin with since they change the name every other year, is some sort of salary cap system to even the playing field. What would people think of the following options:

A) No team can put out a matchday squad at any point in the tournament whose weekly wages add up to more than 1.5 million (chose this at random, no idea what the exact number should be). This would force the bigger clubs to put out a weaker lineup. And they couldn't pick all their top players. Most clubs would be able to field their top squad, but not everybody.

OR

No team can field a matchday squad whose weekly wages are 300% or more than their opponents. This means that Chelsea/Man City etc can't play very many top players at all in the early rounds when they're playing clubs form League One and Two. It would serve two functions: one, even the playing field and two, get the young English academy players experience against experienced teams.

Pipe dream as the EFL wouldn't want the big clubs risk losing in the early rounds more than they already are.